Chapter 3
The next day came and Jack was back at the abandoned industrial park outside of the city. He had barely been able to sleep all night, thinking about the day to come. He didn't know if he was anxious to go on with trying to make allies out of the duel monsters, but he was excited by the prospect of getting to spend time with Dark Magician Girl. For the session of the day, Jack had brought his most favorite deck with a few extra cards from his collection added to it.
Reaching behind himself, Jack opened the special deck carrying case attached to his belt and pulled out and played the specific card he wanted.
"I summon Dark Magician Girl."
For the third time in two days, the beautiful girl appeared in front of him.
"Hello Jack!" She beamed at him.
"Hi, Dark Magician Girl."
She stepped closer to him, touching the black leather jacket he was wearing.
"I haven't seen this before. I like it. It looks good on you."
"Ah, what? This thing? I didn't even think about it when I bought it, I just needed a jacket." He said in his most confident and nonchalant voice.
In fact, Jack had spent over two hours in a store, trying on every leather jacket they had in his size to find one he thought improved his appearance. The jacket both complimented and helpfully contrasted with his combination brown and blonde hair.
"So, which monsters were you thinking about summoning?" Dark Magician Girl asked.
"I have my best deck here." Jack replied, removing his deck from the duel-disk. "This is my favorite deck, but I've thrown in a few random monsters I thought might be good for this as well. Just how well do you know most other duel monsters? Just so I know."
"Well, in the world we come from, when I spend time with other monsters, it tends to be with the ones that are more human than others. There are no problems or disputes amongst us in our world, you understand, but still, some monsters are darker and less pleasant than others."
"Yeah, I learned that." Jack rubbed his throat, remembering his brush with death from the previous day.
Coming back to himself, Jack handed her his deck so she could see. Dark Magician Girl quietly took a few moments to leaf through some of the cards. Her smile changed to a frown as she proceeded.
"I'm afraid we have a slight problem. Most of the monsters in this deck are dragons. I speak to some dragons from time to time, but I can't claim to know any of them especially well."
"Well, I guess we'll just have to do our best. If the dragons get out of control, I'll pull their card and if need be, you can always keep them from doing any damage. You know, if that's okay with you, that is." Jack said, trying hard not to offend her.
"I don't have any problem with intervening." Dark Magician Girl said warmly. "We don't want anyone to get hurt."
Jack smiled at her. "No, we don't."
Dark Magician Girl stepped up beside Jack as he turned towards the open space to begin. Jack drew the first card from his deck.
Dark Magician Girl said, "One piece of advice I can give you, most dragons respect strength above everything else. If you show them strength, you should have a better chance of getting them to work with you."
Jack then suddenly remembered a safety procedure he'd thought of the night before. He reached into his deck case again, pulled out another specific card and handed it to Dark Magician Girl.
"I'd like you to hold onto this and hand it to me in case of an emergency."
She took the card from him and looked at it. It was the Dragon Capture Jar trap card.
"No problem." She said with a smile.
Jack nodded to her and drew six cards out of his deck. His hand consisted of Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, Mirror Force, Guardragon Cataclysm, Polymerization and Dragon Knight of Creation.
"Well, I'm still not exactly sure how this is going to work. I don't know if the monsters I summon are going to talk to each other about me or something, but considering how hostile Red-Eyes was, I don't think I'll begin with Blue-Eyes today." Jack thought. "I summon Dragon Knight of Creation."
The summoning light appeared. Jack noticed out of the corner of his eye that Dark Magician Girl seemed to tense up and her face sharpened with preemptive determination. The monster appeared in front of them. Unlike most dragon monsters, Dragon Knight of Creation was a nearly human knight wearing a shining, golden armor. A long sword was sheathed and attached to the knight's belt.
"Where am I?" The knight asked.
He turned around and saw Jack and Dark Magician Girl. Jack's hand was ready to remove the card from his duel-disk quickly if need be.
"Dark Magician Girl? What is this?" Dragon Knight asked.
Dark Magician Girl stepped forward.
"This is my friend, Jack. He has the power to summon us here from our world. I'm helping him to meet some of us."
Dragon Knight of Creation turned his gaze from her onto Jack.
"Sir Jack, tell me, what is your intention towards me and my brethren?"
Jack replied, "To be blunt, I'm not really sure there's a place for you and your kind within this world. However, my entire life, I've had nothing but respect and admiration for dragons and duel monsters in general. I plan to try to meet and make friends with as many of you as I can and that's pretty much it."
Unseen by the others, Dragon Knight of Creation of smiled within his helmet.
"That is a good answer, Sir Jack. I am personally not yet prepared to promise my sword to you if you need it, but I will promise that you and I shall have the lines of communication open from now on."
Jack smiled at the monster. "Thank you. I appreciate that and I hope all the monsters I meet are as amenable as you. May I remove your card?"
"You may, sir."
Jack nodded and pulled the card from the monster zone and added it to the bottom of his deck. He turned and looked at Dark Magician Girl and saw she was smiling at him.
"You handled that amazingly, Jack!"
"Thank you, but I don't think that one really counts. He may have been dragon type, but he wasn't really a dragon per say." Jack said.
"Still, I'm impressed."
Jack gave her a soft smile in response, but in his mind, he was practically singing. Her saying she was impressed with him was filling him with a tremendous joy, not only because she was a beautiful woman, but because it was the first time anyone had ever said that to him before.
"Thank you. Let's go on." He said.
Still not wanting to summon his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Jack drew a card from his deck. It was the monster Blizzard Dragon.
"Well, here's the first moment of truth." Jack commented offhandedly. "I summon Blizzard Dragon."
Suddenly, an eight-foot tall, blue-scaled dragon with small, bat type wings attached along the outer side of its arms was standing in front of them. Blizzard Dragon looked down at the two of them, cold, misted breath puffing out of its nostrils.
"Okay Jack, they respect strength, so be strong." Jack thought and took a step closer to the dragon. He said aloud in his sternest voice, "Okay Blizzard, listen up. I summoned you here from the Dominion of the Beasts and I can do it again with you and any other monster. All it takes is one card on the duel-disk. If I ever summon you again, it'll either be because there is a job I think you would enjoy performing or because there is a fight I'll need your help with. I cannot control your behavior in any way, so this is entirely up to you. I swear I will never summon you again unless you agree. What is your answer?"
Blizzard Dragon did nothing but stare at them for a over a full minute. From the look in his eyes, Jack and Dark Magician Girl could tell that he was thinking it over. Jack slowly inched his free hand closer to the card in case he needed to remove it and Dark Magician Girl tightened her grip on her magical staff. After another several moments, Blizzard Dragon grunted a loud, deep sound. Dark Magician Girl instantly smiled and squealed with delight.
"He agrees, Jack! He said he appreciates both your strength and candor and he'll fight if you need him to."
Jack exhaled a deep sigh of relief. He looked up into the dragon's eyes.
"Thank you, my friend. We'll see each other again."
Blizzard Dragon nodded and changed his expression to something which almost resembled a smile. Jack nodded back and pulled his card.
"I can't believe I just pulled that off." Jack said to Dark Magician Girl, smiling.
"You were incredible!" She praised him. "I didn't think any dragon would take to you so quickly. No offense."
"None taken."
Jack meant it too. Between her presence and his hitherto successes, he was feeling good. He was feeling confident. He was beginning to feel like there wasn't anything he couldn't do. This was his game after all. Jack drew his next card and it turned out to be Red-Eyes Black Dragon. His ego at an all-time high and thinking his small speech to Blizzard Dragon would work with all the dragons, he saw no problem with bringing Red-Eyes forth again.
"I summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" He half-shouted.
"What? Jack, wait!"
It was too late for her to stop him. Red-Eyes was summoned and present.
"Okay, Red-Eyes, listen up. I summoned you here from-"
Jack never finished his monologue. As soon as he had seen Jack, Red-Eyes spun around and tail-whipped Jack in the stomach, sending him hurtling for forty feet until he collided with the wall of one of the abandoned buildings. Jack fell to the ground, half concussed and almost unconscious.
Red-Eyes started to move closer to Jack, opening his mouth in preparation for using his main attack. Before he could begin to charge it, Dark Magician Girl floated up in front of him and struck him across the face with her staff. Caught by surprise, Red-Eyes fell to the ground from the attack. He then looked up and charged and fired an inferno fire blast at Dark Magician Girl. She swerved in the air, dodging it and fired a magic attack back at Red-Eyes who easily blocked it with his wing.
Straining to see through the haze in his eyes, from his position on the ground, Jack was just able to make out the outlines of the two battling monsters. He could just see Red-Eyes slashing at Dark Magician Girl with his clawed hands and the two of them flying all around each other, both trying to circle around to the other's rear to land a blow on their flank. Jack knew that since they were both flesh and blood, if Red-Eyes managed to land an attack on her he would do serious damage, possibly even kill her. He could not let that happen. Jack rolled over onto his side and as he lifted his right arm, a pain which could have brought down an elephant shot through him from his shoulder all the way down to his feet and back up again.
At the same time, Dark Magician Girl flew upwards, evading several inferno fire blasts, the heat from them nearly singeing her hair and clothes. Red-Eyes caught up with her in the air and rammed her, breaking her concentration on her flying and causing her to plummet back towards the ground.
Continuing to fight through the pain, Jack slowly inched his broken arm nearer to the Red-Eyes card.
Red-Eyes dived down closer to Dark Magician Girl, his fangs bared, preparing to tear into her.
Jack griped the card with two fingers and removed it from the monster zone just as Red-Eyes had nearly reached her. Free of the distraction of the oncoming dragon, Dark Magician Girl reinitialized her levitation and then floated down to where Jack was.
"Are you alright, Dark Magician Girl?"
She smiled sweetly at him. "I think I should be asking that question. You're the one who was hit."
She put both of her hands on his stomach and commenced using her healing powers upon him. Jack once again felt the blissful warmth take away the pain. Unlike the day before, it took a whole five minutes for her magic to restore him to full health.
Once it was done, she took hold of one of his hands and helped him to his feet. Jack stretched his torso and rolled his arms, testing everything.
"That is seriously amazing." Jack said to her.
"It's no big deal, really. It's actually very easy to do with a little training in the magical arts."
That gave Jack an idea. He wondered if it were possible that he could learn how to do magic from her beyond what he was already capable of with the Millennium Ring. More than magic from her, he thought there were more skills he could learn from other monsters; skills like swordsmanship, acrobatics, hand-to-hand combat, the possibilities were seemingly endless.
Before Jack could think about it more, he abruptly realized that he and Dark Magician Girl had not let go of each other's hands. The two of them both took their hands back at about the same time and although Jack wasn't sure he'd seen it correctly, he thought he'd noticed her blushing.
"So, uh, let's keep going." Jack said with a smile. "With some less intense monsters."
"Yes, let's."
Before going on, Jack walked over to where he had been standing before the whole altercation and recovered the cards he'd been holding and subsequently dropped. He stacked them neatly, put them at the bottom of his deck and drew his next card.
If Jack had thought the moments previous incident with Red-Eyes had been frightening and dangerous, then the card he'd just taken from the deck was already making it seem like a day at the beach.
The card was Obelisk the Tormentor, an Egyptian God. He couldn't believe he had been so stupid to have forgotten that card was in his deck. Jack was holding the card about a foot away from himself at chest level. He was staring at it profoundly. No matter how much he tried to, he couldn't look away, couldn't make his eyes budge a fraction of a centimeter away from the image on it.
"Jack?" Dark Magician Girl asked.
As he helplessly continued to focus on the card, Jack began to feel something. It was a great anger, an extreme rage, but it did not belong to Jack himself. In the part of his mind which was still working, he came to know that the animosity was coming directly from the card, from Obelisk himself.
"Jack, what's wrong?"
He barely heard her. His eyes were locked on Obelisk's, and Obelisk's seemed to be glowing and looking into him as well. Jack felt what he could only conceive of as the power of the Egyptian God beginning to press down on him. It felt massive. It felt as boundless as space itself and mightier than any other force in existence.
"Jack, what is it?!" Dark Magician Girl asked again, beginning to become worried.
She stepped to his side and gasped with fright when she saw the card. She immediately began to try to pry it out of his hand.
"Let it go, Jack! Quickly! Before Obelisk destroys you!"
Jack tried to let it go, but it was as if the card was welded to his hand. At that point, he began to hear the voice of Obelisk. It was a voice deeper and more thunderous than any voice he'd ever heard before.
"Mortal, how dare you deign to hold the card of a God? You, of no noble birth, no distinguishing actions, no great power? How dare you think yourself worthy to even look upon the face of a God of Egypt?! For this you shall pay dearly!"
All at once, Jack's hand holding the card began to smoke and spontaneously caught fire. Despite the agony of his burning flesh, Jack still could not let go of the card or even take his eyes off of it. He couldn't even open his mouth to shout in pain.
Dark Magician Girl continued to pull at the Obelisk card with all of her strength, ignoring the flames scorching her own skin. She felt the slightest budge of the card and pulled harder. With a titanic effort, she wrenched it free from Jack's hand and threw it face-down to the ground.
The card itself had been unfazed by the fire, but the same could not be said of Jack. Free from Obelisk's hypnotic control, he howled in terrible pain as he rolled back and forth on the ground, trying to extinguish the flames which had engulfed his entire right arm. After they'd been put out, he laid there, gripping his damaged arm, trying his best not to whimper from how badly it hurt.
Dark Magician Girl rushed over to him.
"Jack! Jack! Talk to me, are you alright?"
Jack sat up. There were silent tears of anguish running down his face.
"I had no idea." He whispered, more to himself than her. "I had no idea. The power, the rage, the hostility of the God monsters. I had no idea."
Dark Magician Girl gave his injured arm a thorough look.
"I'm afraid this injury is going to take quite some more time to repair than the last. The wrath of the gods does not easily fade. We should get you back to your home."
"Yeah... okay."
Jack tentatively stood up.
"What should we do with that?" Dark Magician Girl asked, gesturing to the card on the ground.
"Leave it. It's not my only Obelisk card, and I'm not touching it again."
She nodded and the two of them began the long walk back into the city.
In Jack's condition, it took more than an hour for the two of them to make it back to his condo in the city. Jack used his keys to open the door and Dark Magician Girl helped him over to the couch. He fell down into it's cushioned depth and exhaled in relief as a small amount of the pain was negated.
"I'll get you some water." Dark Magician Girl said.
Leaving him there, she swiftly moved into the kitchen, found a glass, filled it from the faucet and returned to Jack with it. He forced himself upright and she helped him hold onto the glass with his one good hand and Jack drank it all without taking a breath.
"Thank you." He said.
"You really have no idea how lucky you are. If I hadn't been there to pry the card out of your hand, Obelisk would have killed you for sure."
"I know. I felt his rage. It's... indescribable. You saved my life."
"Well, I suppose it makes us even. Red-Eyes would have killed me if you hadn't removed his card when you did. But don't think it means I won't let you forget it any time soon."
Jack looked into her eyes, surprised by the stern, commanding tone in her voice. After a moment, she blinked and her lips parted in a smile and she began to giggle.
"Oh, you're playing with me, that's what you're doing." Jack said, unable to contain his own smile.
"I just couldn't resist."
Dark Magician Girl took a pillow from the other side of the couch and pushed it in behind his back to try to make him more comfortable. Jack winced and groaned horribly in pain as it brushed his burned arm.
"Sorry. Now, I believe I can heal that, but with a little help from you, we should be able to speed up the process considerably." She said.
"What do you need from me?"
"If you summon out the Dark Magician, his magic is even more powerful than mine and together we should be able fix you up quite well."
"Sure. His card should be in one of the cases to your right, third one, second shelf from the top if I remember correctly."
She stepped five feet to her right, opened the glass case, immediately found the card and took it to Jack.
"I summon the Dark Magician." He said weakly, laying the card on the monster zone.
A moment later, Dark Magician was standing in front of them in his dark purple robes, holding his magic staff.
"Student, what is going on here?"
Dark Magician Girl stood in front of him and looked up into his eyes.
"Master, this is my friend Jack, the one I told you about. He was injured by the wrath of Obelisk. I would be greatly appreciative if you would help me to heal his wounds."
Dark Magician glared down at Jack and like so many of the monsters before him, focused an eye of scrutiny upon him. Unlike some of the dragons he'd met, Jack actually had a more difficult time reading the thoughts through the human eyes of Dark Magician. What felt like an exceedingly long time later, Dark Magician's expression softened by a slight degree.
"Alright. Because my student speaks so highly of you, I will help you."
"Thank you, master! Thank you so much!" Dark Magician Girl cried out.
She then sat down on the couch next to Jack while Dark Magician crouched down in front of him. Both magicians placed both of their hands upon his burnt arm and the aura of both of their magics illuminated. In direct opposite to the uplifting warmth of Dark Magician Girl's healing power, Dark Magician's produced a calming sensation of coolness, as if Jack were being submerged in an unheated, outdoor pool. The conflicting sensations created a strange type of sereneness within Jack which were so soothing, it nearly put him into an unconscious state and one of the only coherent thoughts he could form was that it was a better anesthetic than any medical sedative could ever hope to duplicate.
Before Jack even knew it, the feelings from the magic stopped and his mind became perfectly clear. Opening his eyes, he saw that all of the third degree burns which had covered his arm were gone. He flexed his fingers and stretched his arm to test it, finding it in perfect condition.
"Wow." Jack said. "You're already finished? I thought that would take a lot longer."
Dark Magician Girl gave a small giggle in response. "You really were out of it, weren't you, Jack? It's been three hours since we started."
"Three hours?"
Looking out through the window, Jack saw that it was indeed true. The light streaming in was bright and tinged with orange, the sun halfway through its setting.
"Huh. I guess I lost all track of time."
Jack then stood up and felt his arm, confirming it was all better. He then turned and looked at Dark Magician, who had also straightened to his full height.
"Thank you, Dark Magician."
"It was my pleasure. Before you send me back to my world, I would like to have a word with you in private."
"Uh, okay, sure." Jack said.
Dark Magician Girl then stood up. "I'll excuse myself."
She smiled to both men and then quietly left the room.
"Okay, what is it Dark Magician?"
"It's about Dark Magician Girl."
"What about her?"
"You should send her home and not summon her again."
"What?" Jack asked.
"Jack, I don't know the extent of these shadow powers you have and neither do you. Something bad could happen. Your abilities could change who you are or possibly even hurt her accidentally. As her long-time friend and teacher, I do not wish to see her hurt. I sense that you have started to care for her as well, so you should think about my words. Us duel monsters are not supposed to be in your world."
Jack had no idea how to respond to that. He had barely even had time to really think about his feelings for Dark Magician Girl he knew were starting to form. He knew he liked her and despite the irregularity of the whole situation, a small part of him thought there was a one-in-a-million chance something could happen with her. Still, he didn't think his feelings were so well developed and so far along that someone like Dark Magician should be giving him a talk about his intentions towards her. Without a word or any sort of response, Jack removed the magician's card and he disappeared.
He didn't know what he was going to do about this new development, but Jack did know he wanted to talk to Dark Magician Girl. Whether he brought up what her teacher had said or not, he just wanted to talk to her.
Following the path she'd taken into the kitchen, Jack found her using her magic to multitask, levitating pots and foods and such.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"I'm making some dinner for us."
"Why?" Jack was unaccustomed to anything like this.
Due to his severe social awkwardness, Jack had become completely self-sufficient a long time ago. He never expected anyone to do anything for him.
"Because, we both had a difficult day with the training, I heard your stomach growling while we were healing you and after being in this world for so long now, I'm hungry myself for the first time in thousands of years."
Jack smiled. He loved the way she put things. Everything she said was said with sweetness and lightheartedness and never seemed to show any signs of impatience or annoyance like he experienced with most people.
"Alright. So, what are you making?"
"It's an old Egyptian recipe. You actually already have most of the ingredients on hand here and I'm just materializing the rest."
"Well, it smells good, whatever it is."
"I'd like to do something fun while we eat as well. Why don't you pick a movie for us to watch while I finish this up?"
"You know about movies?" Jack asked.
At that point, she turned and looked at him, her cooking process freezing in midair.
"I"m not totally unfamiliar with your modern world, you know. Before this, I got to come out every once in a while on Duel Monsters Spirit Day."
"Oh, yeah, right. Well, I'll go pick a movie."
Jack went back into the living room, removed his duel-disk without deactivating it, picked up the remote and began to peruse the streaming services for something to watch.
"What kind of movie would she like?" Jack thought to himself.
As he was flicking trough the various channels, he heard the hoot of Kuriboh and looked to his right, seeing a translucent image of the little monster floating next to him at head level.
"Kuriboh? Oh yeah, I can see you guys in spirit form, without summoning you. But, what are you doing here?"
Kuriboh replied with his standard sound and to Jack's surprise, he thought he could almost understand what he was saying. Kuriboh uttered the sound again and also pointed to the TV for emphasis.
"What? That movie?"
On the screen, the selector was on what looked like a romantic comedy movie Jack had never heard of. Part of him knew from common knowledge that most girls liked those kinds of movies, but not having any dating experience at all, he wasn't certain.
"This movie? You sure about that?" He asked Kuriboh.
The monster hooted again and nodded, the action causing his entire small body to rock forward.
"Okay, thanks."
Kuriboh then vanished.
Thirty-five minutes later, Dark Magician Girl and Jack were sitting beside each other on the couch, eating the food she'd made and watching the movie. They had to hold their own plates while they ate as Jack did not have a table, never having required one before. The dinner she'd made turned out to be some kind of beef stew with rice and vegetables. It ended up being one of the best meals Jack had ever eaten and he enjoyed the movie a lot more than he had been expecting. During the course of it, near the end, he and Dark Magician Girl ended up touching each other's fingers slightly on the couch seat. When it was over, they both stood up and stretched.
"Well, Jack, I should probably be getting back to my world now." Dark Magician Girl said.
"Okay, so, uh, more training tomorrow? Same place?"
"I'd love to."
"That's great! Goodnight, Dark Magician Girl."
"Goodnight, Jack."
The next day, the training was going well. Jack and Dark Magician Girl had interacted and made allies with many more of the dragons from his favorite deck and several other monsters including the Flame Swordsman, Gearfried the Iron Knight, Magician's Valkyria and several other human-type warriors and spellcasters. They had just finished talking with the Maiden with Eyes of Blue.
"Well Jack, I'm impressed again. Part of me didn't think you would be able to calm the hearts of so many dragons. We haven't had a single injury today."
"I do know these cards after all." Jack replied to her. "I've been using them for years. But honestly, I thought the same thing. Thought you'd at least have to be healing a few broken bones for me sometime today."
Dark Magician Girl laughed softly at that and Jack drew his next card and it was again his biggest challenge, Red-Eyes Black Dragon.
"It's Red-Eyes again." He said.
"Are you going to summon him?"
"I don't know. I'd like to have Red-Eyes on my side, but with everything that's happened with him already, I'm not sure it's possible."
Dark Magician Girl said, "Well, if you want to try again, I'll be here to stop him if things get out of control. You just have to remember that dragons respect strength."
"Or maybe I should show a different kind of strength." Jack thought.
He played the card and Red-Eyes appeared. The giant dragon immediately noticed Jack and growled deeply.
"Wait!" Jack yelled up at him. "Red-Eyes, before you try to kill me, just give me one minute to say something."
Red-Eyes seemed not to waver from his aggressive posture for several moments before relaxing somewhat.
"Okay." Jack held up the Dragon Capture Jar card so Red-Eyes could see. "See this? You know that with this card, I could capture you and hold you imprisoned for all eternity if I wanted to."
He took the card and tore it in two.
"Now I can't."
Jack then took his duel-disk off his arm and slid it several feet away from himself.
"And now there's no way I could stop you if you tried to do something to me. Red-Eyes, you are my favorite of all the dragons. I respect you more than any other. I would like to have you on my side, but I'm not going to beg. If you do not agree this time, then that's it, I'll never summon you again and you'll never know what kind of opportunities a partnership with me could bring you and if you try to kill me again, it's up to you, but I don't think you will. Underneath all that hostility, I think there's a creature that knows when the right time to and not to fight is and I'm willing to bet that you don't really want to be the kind of monster you've been acting like."
A brief moment later, Red-Eyes growled a much softer and quieter growl than he had before.
"Jack, he... he says 'yes!'" Dark Magician Girl said with a tone of sheer surprise. "He said he's amazed that you would try again and that everything you just did showed a strength and faith he didn't think possible in any human. He says if you show this same kind of strength in battle, he'll be glad to fight beside you."
"Thank you, Red-Eyes." Jack said as he retrieved his duel-disk. "I look forward to working with you. May I pull your card?"
Red-Eyes growled in an affirmative tone and Jack removed him from the disk. Jack breathed out in relief.
"Pah! Ha ha ha ha ha! Oh! I can't believe that worked! I thought he was gonna try to eat me for sure!"
"I wasn't expecting that either." Dark Magician Girl said.
"Well, that's pretty much every monster in my main deck except for Blue-Eyes, but we'll work on them some other time."
"I guess this is it then. This has been fun the last few days, but now that you've mastered your deck and seem to have a firm grip on your powers, I guess we won't see each other much after this."
"Actually, uh, you know, last night with the movie and everything was a lot of fun, wasn't it?" Jack asked.
Dark Magician Girl nodded with a smile. "It was."
"Yeah, so, I was thinking, I'd really like to do stuff like that with you more often, maybe even go out into the city and do stuff together. I mean, if you wanted to. If you wouldn't mind spending time with me."
"No, not at all. You're the first new person I've met in a very long time. I enjoy spending time with you, Jack. I'd love to do more things with you."
A huge smile spread across Jack's face. "That's great! So, since we are going to do stuff together, I was wondering if there's something I could call you besides 'Dark Magician Girl.' It's just, I couldn't really call you that in public and besides it seems, I don't know, kinda rude to you somehow to only call you that."
Dark Magician Girl quite obviously blushed at his words, looking away from him a little bit.
"Oh, that's, that's very considerate of you to think of that." She then looked into his eyes again as she stepped closer to him. "There actually is something else. A long time ago, in another life, I used to be called 'Mana.'"
"'Mana.' I like that. It's very pretty. 'Mana' it is then." Jack said.
"Also, if I'm going to be spending more time in your world, I'll probably need some more clothes to wear than just this."
"That's no problem. We'll go shopping, you can pick some stuff out."
Mana smiled at him and as they turned to walk back to town, they ended up reaching out and holding hands as they walked. As they went, for the first time in his life, Jack had a good feeling about the future.